Vola
Lamp
Design: Isao Hosoe with Peter Solomon
Production: Luxo Italiana S.p.A., Italy, 1996
Vola is a name and a fact, an object and also the event that gives it life.
When the lamp is switched on, the energy that it releases activates two springs of memory metal that expand and raise the two wings to the gliding position by means of tensors. The light is thus more widely diffused, and the wings remain in position as long as the lamp is on.
As soon as it is switched off, the wings immediately, but slowly, lower and return to their closed position: the bird sleeps and waits for a warm and soft lamp to let it fly again.
This is the first specimen of a new species. And it’s the first time that behavioural design produces an object that possesses a kind of behaviour by means of independent physical movement.
